Wednesday, December 28, 2011

A bunch of us heard this interview with Andrew Graham-Dixon about his biography of Caravaggio calledCaravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profaneon the Diane Rehm Show today before lunch. Really interesting stuff... I will have to read the book now. Check it out.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Every year, for Christmas, we spend a weekend baking gingerbread cookies, and another weekend rushing out the standard photo Christmas card from Wal-Mart with a picture of the girls —usually taken on summer vacation.

This year, I thought I'd tie the two chores together with a single fishy theme. The cookies would be starfish, dolphins, seahorses and turtles, and for the card, I planned to create some custom art showing the household as a a family of fish. We got the cookies done, and I even got Anne Marie to approve the sketch above for the card. But sadly, that's as far as I got.

Friday, December 23, 2011

A quick (and late, of course) little painting for Nate's graduation announcement this year...now going out with Christmas cards...sorry to have missed the shindig at Slatts - looks like a good time was had by all. Have a wonderful Holiday everyone!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

I spent most of the morning & afternoon before the Christmas party battling new glitches in Photoshop. All my selection tools turned to the "feather" setting, so I had to laboriously erase everything from around any element I wanted to copy and set into my holiday card. Then when I shrunk things down to 4 by 6 for printing, everything digitalized.

Luckily, I sat next to Debby at the Christmas party, and she told me to Google "selection tool problem with feather setting in Photoshop." I did, and it turns out it's a permanent problem d/t a glitch in Photoshop, but you can eliminate the feather effects by going up to Select, then choose "Refine edges", and set “feather” to zero, and set contrast up to 100%. Debby also described how to avoid pixilation when shrinking images by making sure resolution is set at 300 pixels/inch when you change "image size", and choosing the bottom option under bicubic (“sharper best for reduction”)

So yesterday, I was able to make a much better version of the 2011 Holiday Shark Card. Anybody who got a lousy blurry card from me Sunday night can get one of the new ones from me if you come to the lunches.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

This is another illustration (mostly graphite, with the wagon and most of its passengers borrowed from the cover painting) from the last book in the Shaker Kids series. It shows Colonel Barker seen from behind, left foreground. As blog-spotters will recall, Justin posed in several layers of historic costume in 90-degree heat to give me the resource photos for that sleazy character. This is not to say that Justin is a sleazy character: au contraire, BEAR! Justin’s own character is totally sleazeless. Thanks again, Justin.-Pam

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

It comes down to the wire every year... Whether or not to do a card. I am planning on something quick and simple and will post soon.

Do you all do one every year? Are you just emailing them or printing them?

Post your cards if you do them....

In Other News...

I know a lot of us listen to audiobooks and podcasts while working. I recently stumbled on this new one by Sam Weber last night and it is pretty good. It is just starting; so the show is still working out the rough edges (like so many podcasts).

He basically sits down and talks with different illustrators and art directors each Wednesday. It is part of the lineup for WSVA (a radio station for the School of Visual Arts in NYC) but anyone can listen.

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About the blog

Cincinnati has a great wealth of talent in the field of illustration. This blog is designed to be an outlet for artists who live and work in the Queen City and surrounding region. Posts include recently completed work (published or personal), info on upcoming events, pictures from past events and shows, book signings, techniques, inspirations, progress variations, sketches and news in the world of illustration.

All images are copyrighted by the artist posted in each entry unless otherwise noted. Do not use without permission.

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We meet for lunch each week. See the calendar above left.

If you have a show, book or other publication coming out, award, signing, appearance, lecture, class, or anything else you want to show off, LET ME KNOW or join our Facebook page and post it there. https://www.facebook.com/groups/894018753966828/

I can also make a blog entry as well (unless you want to post regularly).